Total amount of Precious Metals mined in human history

Discussion in 'Bullion Investing' started by GeorgeM, Feb 7, 2013.

  1. GeorgeM

    GeorgeM Well-Known Member

    I'm looking for information about Gold, Silver, Platinum, & Palladium for a class on precious metals. I've found several conflicting numbers for the following and was wondering if you have any citations or numbers to fill in the gaps. I wonder if some of the pages I'm finding are merely referencing each other and "playing the game of telephone" with the data. For example: http://money.howstuffworks.com/question213.htm

    Here's what I've found so far:

    Approximate Annual Gold Production:
    50m troy ounces | In 'sticky' terms: a 14 ft^3 cube
    Total Gold Production (obviously, estimated):
    10b troy ounces | an 82 ft^3 cube or a monument 1/6 the height of the Washington Monument
    <<the total number seems quite high to me (and I wonder if there's some double counting going on)

    Approximate Annual Silver Production:
    750m troy ounces
    Total Silver Production (obviously, estimated):
    42.7b troy ounces

    Approximate Annual Platinum Production:
    3.6m troy ounces
    Total Platinum Production (obviously, estimated):
    ???

    Approximate Annual Palladium Production:
    4.2m troy ounces
    Total Palladium Production (obviously, estimated):
    ???
     
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  3. Derick

    Derick Well-Known Member

    palad 2000-2010.jpg platP 2000-2009.jpg

    Global paladium and platinum production form 2000. The current numbers look right. Historic for platinum and paladium??
     
  4. medoraman

    medoraman Supporter! Supporter

    I would on the surface not agree with the gold/silver numbers cumulative. I simply say that since somewhere between 12-15 to 1 is the ratio of silver vs gold in the ground. So, I would expect some kind of number SOMEWHAT similar for cumulative mined metals.
     
  5. Derick

    Derick Well-Known Member

  6. GeorgeM

    GeorgeM Well-Known Member

    Where do you get that ratio from? I mean, there were fixed rates of exchange in the past that may have been loosely related to supply numbers at the time. But, those ratios are in a constant state of flux.

    Also, what I've read suggests that the current rate of mining silver has risen sharply, while gold has stayed the same or slightly declined.
     
  7. medoraman

    medoraman Supporter! Supporter

    I get it from both estimates of relative rarity in the earth, as well as ancient exchange rates which mirrored the same relative worth.

    It would just be my guess sir, but would find your cumulative numbers relative to each other surprising if true.
     
  8. InfleXion

    InfleXion Wealth Preserver

    According to mining numbers the SGR in the ground is only 7:1 in recent years. Some would argue that's because silver isn't profitable enough to go after with the same energy as gold, so that number is suppressed. If silver is ever fair value again then we will have a better indication of whether it is actually depleting in the ground or if it is simply a lack of getting after it.
     
  9. medoraman

    medoraman Supporter! Supporter

    I would agree pricing today is such a distortion relative to each other its making numbers hard to come by. That is I went back to ancient mesopatamian, Greek, and roman sources for their relationship figures. I am guessing they might be more accurate than today, what with the whole "gold is the only real money" thing going on.
     
  10. Derick

    Derick Well-Known Member

    How frustrating!
     
  11. Derick

    Derick Well-Known Member

    In regards to paladium, production only really started in the 70's. So, considering the data below, increase in production since the 70 seems rather linear. Taking the arithmetic mean of production in the 1970 and 2010 times 40 years would give a reasonable number for global production historically. The area under the curve is the best number.

    pd historic production.jpg
     
  12. Derick

    Derick Well-Known Member

    I did a rough integration on the platinum historic global production data set and came up with a number for 1900 to 2010 of approx. 200,194,541 troy oz's.
     
  13. medoraman

    medoraman Supporter! Supporter

    Approximately 200,194,541?
     
  14. desertgem

    desertgem Senior Errer Collecktor

    [​IMG] Originally Posted by Derick [​IMG]


    It doesn't seem that you applied the laws of significant figures in your math. Multiplying by 110 , which has 2 significant figures would only give significance of 200,000,000. You would also have to figure the significant figures of each of the mean calculations to be more precise.
     
    rrdenarius likes this.
  15. Tyler

    Tyler Active Member

    ~200,194,541.294323943 Actually.
     
  16. desertgem

    desertgem Senior Errer Collecktor

    Sigh ~Modern Education.
     
  17. hemi1500

    hemi1500 Member

    Was listening to the pod cast "how gold works" from Stuff You Should Know,,Their research says only 161,000 tons of gold have been mined ever..And as of now only15% of that gold in unaccounted for,,with that said the 15% must be what is in Fort Knox
     
  18. Derick

    Derick Well-Known Member

    What are you talking about! I did not use the 110 or mean in the calculation (that is only for estimation). I used the area under the curve for more accurate number, the integral. I had to pull the data from a printed graph to prepare the fit, so there is a slight error and therefore I said approx. If you do not have the production numbers per year in digital format to SUM, the number cannot be actual.
     
  19. aronsamma

    aronsamma Active Member

    The point is that approximately 200,194,541 means that the real number is about +/- 10 from there, when in reality, the number could be tens or hundreds of thousands off.
     
  20. Derick

    Derick Well-Known Member

  21. Derick

    Derick Well-Known Member

    Yes, but you do NOT have the stat error. So, the best approximation is the best data fit, which gives that number. You can make it 200,000,000, but based on what!
     
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